Book Review: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Title: Mastiff
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: Beka Cooper, #3
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Random House BFYR
Release date: October 25, 2011
Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge
Source: Own it

Summary: The Legend of Beka Cooper gives Tamora Pierce’s fans exactly what they want—a smart and savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall’s Lower City—while offering plenty of appeal for new readers as well.

Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal.

Friends, do you see the pub date up there?  Yes, it does say 2011. MASTIFF by Tamora Pierce came out in October 2011, I got it for Christmas that year, and hadn’t read it until now. I’m not sure why–or how–I waited to read it, the third book in the Beka Cooper series, yet another one of the Tortall-based fantasies by Tamora Pierce. For one reason or another, it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. I’m so very glad that I fixed this problem, friends, because MASTIFF was a worthy conclusion to a great series by one of the best girl-power fantasy authors EVER.

FYI, if you haven’t read any of the other Beka Cooper books, this is my warning for mild spoilers ahead!

So, in MASTIFF we find that some time has passed since the end of BLOODHOUND, and in that time, Beka has climbed the ranks of the Lower City Dogs and is now her former trainer Tunstall’s partner. But more than that has changed for Beka: we first meet her in MASTIFF at the funeral of her fiance, a fellow dog who died on the job. Their relationship was completely on the rocks, and we find out that Beka was on the verge of breaking their engagement when he, Holder, died. We never, ever meet Holder or hear much about him except for a few memories Beka relives, so I’m not 100% sure that the whole idea of him was necessary. But I don’t call the shots here, friends. Tamora Pierce does. And she does a pretty great job of it.

The main conflict/drama/case in MASTIFF revolves around slave trading in Tortall. And also MAGIC, which we’ve seen in the previous Beka books but I don’t think to this extent. You see, the king and queen of Corus are the victims of a horrible magical and human massacre, during which most of their castle’s staff and guard are brutally murdered and their young son kidnapped. Beka, Tunstall, and a mage named Farmer are called onto the scene because of the tracking prowess of Achoo, Beka’s scent hound. (HOLLA for awesome pets!) Turns out that the prince is feared taken by slave traders, and so Beka and her team are off into the hinterlands of Tortall to find him and bring him home, even as they are thwarted and held back by the work of very powerful mages.

There’s good political shenanigans in MASTIFF that revolve a great deal around the mages and the fact that the king wants to begin taxing them and such, which pisses them all off. But there’s traitors in everyone’s midsts as well, and all of this drama keeps everyone on guard for the whole book. I love me a good traitor! Backstabbing, lies, secrets–these all make for a tense atmosphere, and they lend the group’s search for the prince lots of urgency.

Adding to this political backstabbing is the uncertainty within the hunting party. Farmer the mage is a total unknown to Beka and Tunstall, and knowing that he is a mage and that the conflict surrounding the massacre at the palace–which is truly horrible–and the kidnapping of the prince come from a magic-related issue makes it difficult for everyone to trust each other. Especially as things progress and the trustworthiness of each companion is questioned. In fact, this aspect wound up being one of the bigger issues for me, because the small hunting party DOES have a traitor in it, and I hated and didn’t believe who it was at the end. It seemed unlike something this person would do, even for the reasons we are given. Alas. This was probably my biggest issue with the way MASTIFF plays out.

Despite that, I really liked the magic aspect of MASTIFF. Tamora Pierce kind of toes the line between awesome and cheesy, but she uses it to create lots of danger and jeopardy on the road for Beka, Tunstall, Lady Sabine, and Farmer. And I’m not talking superficial danger, either. There’s a constant threat of any of them being killed at any moment. It’s legit, and Farmer is much more than he seems.

Speaking of Farmer, since he’s the only person in the small group that we have never met before, I’ll talk a little bit more about him. I liked Farmer quite a bit. He pretends to be stupid around other mages so they don’t recognize his true power, but I also found him charming and light-hearted where Beka is always so prickly and serious. Of course, you know that they develop a thing, but it’s actually really nice and so not the focus of MASTIFF. I think one of the hallmark’s of Tamora Pierce‘s books is smart, strong, empowered females who are respected and loved without judgement or gender-based issues by strong, confident, encouraging, mature guys. Beka continues to be the former, and Farmer winds up being the latter. AWESOME.

Friends, if you are a fan of fantasies and/or of well-told stories with great female characters, you should definitely be checking out SOMETHING by Tamora Pierce. Her Beka Cooper series has been really enjoyable. We see Beka through her training as a Provost’s Dog, and through some pretty harrowing things, especially in MASTIFF. I’m so glad that I finally got around to reading this book. Thankfully there’s still TONS of Tamora left for me to read!!

Check out these other reviews of Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Heidi @ YA Bilbiophile: “I loved everything about it. The characters, the storyline, the twists… I was hooked.”

Meg Tao @ Coffee and Wizards: “Mastiff broke my heart. I can’t tell you why, but you need to know that Pierce’s characters are some of the most well-rounded characters you will ever find.”